Friday, June 10, 2011

Your Dose of Dangle

It’s been a couple weeks since I wrote a dose, so I’ll catch you up on my endeavors.

I’ve been working on my novel non-stop almost, the working title of which is Unpalleteable. It’s going to be a humorous book, so I keep having to go back and pump up the funny. The narrator is the main character and I’m having trouble giving him the right presence.

I’ve joined another writers group to workshop pieces of the novel. The last one I was in with Clive Matson was mellow. My inability to talk about other people’s writing was accepted and people were cool with me chiming in only occasionally. This new group works differently. They go around and each person must speak. I become tongue-tied and intimidated, and this group is very intimate and everybody sounds very intelligent when they speak. It’s just like college, which I hated. The point: it’s good to do things that are painful and difficult. It makes you stronger.

I went to New York and led the executive committee of the Graphic Artists Guild through a strategic planning workshop using my graphic facilitation skills. It was good practice for me since I want to be able to do that kind of work. The Graphic Artists Guild is very special to me, some of you might know that I’m a past president. Despite what you may have heard from some dickheads the Guild is a terrific organization with wonderful people. I hope they win that lawsuit against those dickheads.

Saw a Giants game with my friend, Karthik, the next mayor of San Francisco. I forgot my glasses but I could still see enough. Baseball games have sure changed since the days when I was a maniacal fan. The constant flashing of the lit up scoreboards almost puts you into a epileptic seizure. Some things are the same though: two beers––nineteen dollars.

Karthik is practically a professional cheerer. He’s the guy who starts those clapping cheers that go LET’S GO GIANTS clap-clap-clap! and then the rest of the ballpark picks up on it and joins in. Pretty amazing and another reason to vote Karthik Rajan for mayor.

I’ve read a couple books that I’ve forgotten already. Now I’m rereading Alan Black’s, Kick the Balls, which is unforgettable and hilarious. Last night I watched the movie Smoking Aces. If you haven’t seen it don’t waste your time.

I love your candid comments about your work such as the reference to going back to "pump up the funny". Some think it must all flow out in finished form from the inception. You are truly a craftsman and I love the finished product. May you continue to find the insights that lead to giggles, snickers, guffaws and riotous laughter easy to come by.